David Seidler (1937-2024) is dead. The British-American screenwriter died on March 16th at the age of 86 during a fishing trip in New Zealand. His long-time manager confirmed this, according to Deadline. “David was in the place he loved most – New Zealand – doing what gave him the most peace, fly fishing,” said Jeff Aghassi.
Seidler has been involved in dozens of US productions over his long career; his screenplay for the historical drama “The King’s Speech” (2010) was awarded an Oscar.
Overall, the film, in which Colin Firth (63) played the leading role of King George VI, was a success. at that time even won four golden boys, including in the categories “Best Film” and “Best Director” – probably the greatest success in Seidler’s long career as an author.
David Seidler was born in London in the summer of 1937. He was an only child and his family belonged to the British middle class at the time. They were of Jewish descent. At the beginning of the Second World War he moved with his parents to Lingfield near Surrey, and later they moved to New York. Seidler began to stutter at that time, which is why he received speech therapy treatment in the 1940s. The stuttering only stopped again when I was a teenager.
In New York, Seidler went to school with the now also famous film director Francis Ford Coppola (84). He later moved to college at Cornell University. He wrote his first screenplays in the 1960s, for example, he wrote a few episodes for the series “The Adventures of Seaspray”.
Seidler’s works also included “Onassis, the Richest Man in the World” (1988), “Guilt and Curse” (1988), “Tucker” (1988) and “The King and I” (1999). But his big breakthrough came with “The King’s Speech”. In addition to the Oscar, he also received a Golden Globe nomination and the British Academy Film Award.
David Seidler was married several times. He leaves behind a son and a daughter.
